I still believe Andy rolled over at MC, wether it was a good idea or not let's look at the facts.

He had just won his first masters for a long time in Miami and it was a grueling affair so he probably felt no ambition to win in MC

He got booed in MC so that says to me they realised he wasn't putting too much effort into it

He played so well in his first match that he felt that his ability to play decent on clay was there, there was too much of a gulf between his form in the first match compared to his match with Stan.

His mood after his defeat was not exactly despondant, as the photos taken after his defeat showed.

So to me, it was a planned tank to gve him enough time to recoup properly and practise a bit more before embarking on 2 masters in a row followed by the French open. Was it a good idea? Well short term maybe not, match practise is important, but long term yes and this is important for the coming month to be fully fit and focsussed while Rafa et all were busy playing and tiring themselves out a bit more.

Apart from Federer, he should be in a much better position over the next few weeks than most of his rivals.

Of course this could be complete tosh and he got spanked by Stan and was clearly not ready for clay so practised some more, but i'm still going with my initial theory.

I actually feel the same as you Gnome. This has shades of last year but he has added the Masters to the tiournies he is aiming for. It did seem very strange the way he played Stan after such a fantastic start.

I still believe Andy rolled over at MC, wether it was a good idea or not let's look at the facts.

Jeez. You couldn't make this stuff up. Tell you what lets make it simple. Whenever Andy loses a match just blame it on him "rolling-over", his back, his knee or a virus. Me? I know he lost because he just wasn't good enough on the day despite giving 100%. Im obviously stupid.

Jeez. You couldn't make this stuff up. Tell you what lets make it simple. Whenever Andy loses a match just blame it on him "rolling-over", his back, his knee or a virus. Me? I know he lost because he just wasn't good enough on the day despite giving 100%. Im obviously stupid.

Jeez. You couldn't make this stuff up. Tell you what lets make it simple. Whenever Andy loses a match just blame it on him "rolling-over", his back, his knee or a virus. Me? I know he lost because he just wasn't good enough on the day despite giving 100%. Im obviously stupid.

What utter tosh, there are many times Andy has lost when nothing was mentioned as an excuse, the Wimbledon final for example. If you don't believe players tank on purpose you are really naive, take the Paris masters for instance, do i really need to highlight every example of top players who have "surprisingly" lost there.

Andy's defeat in Monte carlo is open to interpretation, and i noticed you highlight only the first part of my comment, if you bothered to read the whole post i also added that i could be well wide of the mark, but my opinion is my own.